Consumer and Community Participation

The CYWHS is committed to involving our consumers in the planning, delivery and evaluation of our health services.

Consumer and Community participation is a process of enabling consumers to be involved in health decisions, depending on the issues involved, their level of skill, support and resources available. Some consumers will have more of an interest in some issues than other consumers do. Some consumers will have more time and be willing to commit to longer term projects than others. They are all individuals.

One of the ways of involving consumers is to have Register of Interested Consumers so that we can approach consumers who have indicated an interest in being involved in particular areas. The Community Participation Facilitator will keep the confidential register and she will contact the individuals to see if they would like to be involved when requests come in from wards or departments. For example, we would like to have a consumer involved with a project looking at patient identification and also a project around “open disclosure.” We currently have consumers involved in a range of projects including asthma, high dependency care, 4th floor redevelopment, information for consumers on the world wide web, as well as in producing health information about specific health issues. We will assist consumers with travel and child care and other out-of-pocket expenses.

Consumer and Community participation in health care can contribute to

• improved service quality and safety
• improved health for individuals and groups
• services that are more responsive to the needs of consumers
• increased consumer confidence and skills to be involved in care. (Commonwealth Dept of Health and Aged Care (2000) Improving health services through consumer participation)

Emerging research shows that consumer participation improves health outcomes for participants through more appropriate and better treatment. 

Consumers are people who are concerned about the performance of the WCH for themselves and for other members of the community.  Consumers include people who, directly or indirectly, use our services.  Consumers can be individuals, groups or the community as a whole.  

Some consumers may have difficulty in participating in health services.  Consumer participation strategies need to seek out the views of people who are not always heard, such as indigenous Australians, culturally and linguistically diverse families and people from rural and remote areas.

The CYWHS has established a Peak Consumer and Community Advisory Group (PCCAG) to ensure community members have an opportunity to be involved in service planning, evaluation and future directions of the Hospital.  A Community Participation Facilitator assists CYWHS staff in supporting consumer participation and supports the Peak Consumer and Community Advisory Group.

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